


what you took

by stupidgaytree



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Short, Spoilers for Episode 27, for once in my life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 18:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18707767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidgaytree/pseuds/stupidgaytree
Summary: Ned Chicane has not taken anything from the abomination. Nothing it earned. Nothing that will cut it to the bone and still deeper.But there had been three people standing in front of him in the Cryptonomica that night, really. He is not stupid. He knows the thing did its research. And certainly, everything Aubrey said was real, straight out of her mouth.





	what you took

Ned Chicane has not taken anything from the abomination. Nothing it earned. Nothing that will cut it to the bone and still deeper.

 

But there had been three people standing in front of him in the Cryptonomica that night, really. He is not stupid. He knows the thing did its research. And certainly, everything Aubrey said was real, straight out of her mouth.

 

Boyd -- dead. Decomposing. Left alone in his shitty little motel. No matter how much he hates him, Ned still wonders if it was even Boyd at all that had asked him to steal the Shade Tree. If it was for nothing.

 

Dani -- God, who knows. The track record of the thing doesn't look good. Chances are, she's alone too, maybe in the woods. Maybe near the arch. Maybe she'd been nearly home.

 

Aubrey -- Christ. Aubrey is still standing, and she has her pendant back, and he'd watched her climb safe enough into Mama's truck with Jake and Moira. She will never have her mother back. She will never have her big old childhood home that never _really_ begged to be robbed back. She may never have her friend back. Amnesty Lodge may be facing its end as he stands there in the Cryptonomica, staring at where Aubrey and where Not-Dani-Not-Boyd-But-Close-Enough had stood.

 

Ned Chicane has taken nothing from the monster. It took everything from him, and in turn he took everything from three people who had nothing to do with whatever its deal was with him.

 

None of this makes him feel better. It does not erase the past still stuck in his mind -- of Boyd's neck snapped and bleeding onto shitty carpet, of Nearly-Dani's voice struggling its way from her throat to ask _What have you taken from me?_ And of Aubrey, fists free of fire, pendant swinging around her neck, telling him she hated him.

 

Ned picks up his essentials and walks out.

**Author's Note:**

> quick establishment that i as a listener do not think dani is dead and if she was griffin would have hell to pay. anyways this episode fuckt me up see yall in a month


End file.
